Treatment of fibrous plants



2 Sheets-Sheet 1,

s. M. ALLEN. TREATMENT OF FIBROUS PLANTS.

No. 27,607. Patented Mar. 20, 1860.

= O Kw (I w E m i UNITED STATES PATENT FFICE.

STEPHEN M. ALLEN, OF NIAGARA FALLS, NET? YORK.

TREATIVJTENT OF FIBROUS PLANTS.

Specification of Letters Patent No. 27,507, dated March 20, 1860.

T 0 all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, STEPHEN M. ALLEN, of Niagara Falls, in the county ofNiagara and State of New York, have invented a certain new and usefulMode of Treating Fi brous Plants, the object of which is to produce anew and better fibrous material than any hitherto produced, to be usedas a substitute for and mixed with silk, cotton, wool, and linen, andthat the following description, taken in connection with theaccompanying drawings, hereinafter referred to,

forms a full and exact specification of the same, wherein I have setforth the nature and principles of my said improvements, by which myinvention may be distinguished from all others of a similar class,together with such parts as I claim and desire to have secured to me byLetters Patent.

The present invention relates to the treatment of fibrous vegetableslike flax, hemp, jute, Manila-grass, sugar cane, etc., so as to changeand improve their staple and thus render them valuable as the basis oftextile fabrics and so that they can be used as substitutes for or mixedwith silk, cotton, and wool, etc., in the manufacture of yarns andcloths.

Before proceeding further, it may be well to state that my improvementsare not applicable to cotton, between which and those plants of which Itreat, there is no true analogy, as cotton is a seed-covering and canonly be cleansed, not have its staple altered, whereas the mechanicalstructure of the above named plants, can be in a degree affected bydifferent modes of treatment. But all processes heretofore employed havebeen more or less destructive of the best qualities of the fibrous basissought to be obtained, and these qualities may be enumerated as follows:It is important to obtain such a shape of fibril and such a surfacethereon, as to best adapt it to mix with silk, wool or cotton or to workpure into a strong thread or yarn and so that it can be worked on theordinary machinery now used in producing silk, woolen or cotton or linengoods. It should be of the nature and condition to receive andpermanently retain unchanged the dyes used in producing colored goods.Its condition should be such, that the bleaching can be performed bychlorin instead of by air, or natural bleaching, as now practiced. Itshould retain the softness of touch, which give value to fine animalwools, and lastly it should have the glossy appearance of silk.

To produce a fiber which should possess all the above-named qualities isthe object aimed at and secured by my invention, and one which has neverbefore been attained; and in order to clearly point out the distinctivefeatures and advantages of my new mode of treatment and wherein it is indirect opposition to those that have heretofore been employed, it may beobserved that in most of the fibrous plants herein above spoken of arefound albumen, resin, oil, &c., which color and cement the fibrils andfilaments to the'central woody stalk. All the old processes whileattempting to remove these matters have changed or destroyed the truenatural structure of the fibrous plant. Thus the old setting andanalogous processes have been fermenting ones which in the end cause thedecomposition, decay or destruc tion of the texture of the organicsubstances of the fiber. The later and patented processes of treatingwith caustic alkalies or acids, produce as bad an effect though of adifferent kind. All of them lessen the strength and diminish thesoftness and glossy appearance of the ultimate fibril.

The essential feature of my new mode of treatment, consists insubjecting the mate rial acted upon to heated air charged with water upto its point of saturation. The action of this saturated air produces anefiect upon the fiber which has never before been secured by any processheretofore attempted, viz; it softens and sepaates the elements thathold the fibers together, without destroying or injuring its naturalstructure, and opens the capillary tubes, so that the albumen, resinousand coloring matters can be readily reached and removed by wa ter. Allprocesses heretofore used instead of doing this, fix the albumen andcoloring matter with the more insoluble matters such as gumresin, &c.,and prevent the very object aimed at, viz., opening the fiber so thatthe coloring matter, albumen, &c., can be removed by water or otherwise.

It will be seen that there is a great difference between heated vapor,and air, at the same temperature, when charged with water up to itspoint of saturation, as air thus charged is much more penetrative andhas its solvent power increased to a wonderful extent, and the finestfibers thus treated become filled with water as may be observed with theaid of a powerful microscope. Exposure to watery vapor will produce nosuch effect, as the vapor will condense on the surface of the fibrousmaterials, and may be observed there in minute globules. After thisair-bath the fibers are exposed to boiled water cooled down to about14:0 to 160, and kept at that heat a proper length of time (in anysuitable vessel) say for about three hours, when a large percentage ofthe cementing matters, especially the albumen and green coloring matteris dissolved. This solution is then displaced and driven out of thefibrous materials by pure water of about 140 to 150 in any propermanner.

In order to show the distinctive features between the structure of theseveral fibrous vegetables that I treat and that of cotton and thepeculiar effect of my process, I have illustrated fibers of the same,highly magni fied in Sheet 1 of the accompanying plates of drawings ofwhich Plate 1 is a fiber of natural wool highly magnified. Plate 2 is afiber of cotton. Plate 3 one of silk. Plate 4 one of natural flax. Plate5 one of hemp. Plate 6 one of flax with the fibrils partly separated orspread out. Plate 7 one of flax partially prepared by my process. Plate8 a cross section through a stem of flax in its natural state. Plate 9 across section of the fibril, showing its shape and how surrounded with aset of cords in a spiral direction. Plate 10 a fibril of flax asprepared by my process and Plate 11 a filament of flax spread out. Byinspection of these plates, it will be seen, that the fiber produced bymy new mode and shown in Plate 10 combines in itself the good qualitiesof the insect, animal, and vegetable materials.

I will next proceed to describe more in detail my new mode of treatingflax, it being premised that a similar treatment is pursued whenoperating on any of the materials herein before named, varying slightlyof course in temperature and the size and form of the apparatus usedaccording to the use to which the result is to be applied.

I take the flax plant which should be pulled or mown before it be tooripe, and sun dry it, or dry it by means of air deprived of its normalmoisture by heat and then cooled in a manner that will be described in asubsequent application for separate Letters Patent, and place it in avessel A, Fig. 1, Plate 2, in which vessel B is a manhole for theinsertion of the fibrous materials and C a man hole for the removal ofthe same, D a perforated bottom and E a heating coil. Air charged withwater as before stated is then forced through the vessel A and out atthe valve I, depositing its moisture in and penetrating the fibrousmaterials, as follows: A, Fig. 2, Plate 2 is a chamber containing waterto the level 6 Z).

B is a steam-heating coil, C an air-coil. E is a cistern containingwater to the line f f. D is a hollow piston, with a valve at H openinginward, operated by a lever I. F is an air-pipe rising above the levelof the water line f f and provided with a'valve at G opening inward. Theair entering at valve H in elevating the piston is forced in the downstroke through the pipe F and through perforations in the coil D, thenceupward through the water heated by the steam coil B and out at the cockJ into the vessel A containing the fibrous materials upon which, themoisture with which the air is charged, is deposited. The air afterhaving thus deposited its moisture, passes out at the cock Gr. After thefibrous materials have been thus treated with the air-bath the cementingmatters are brought into such a molecular condition as to be soluble inwater, which should be made pure by boiling and cooled to 140 or 150 andthen passed through the fibrous materials, which may be done by lettingit enter the cock G, Fig. 7, Plate 2, from a reservoir and pass out atthe cock H until the solution is removed. The resultant fiber may thenbe passed through breaking and separating or spreading machines in theusual or any desired mode and then is ready to be used in coarse fabricsbut for fine fabrics it undergoes further operations which will form thesubjects of subsequent applications for separate Letters Patent.

It will be evident that there are other modes and a variety of apparatusother than those described by which the fibrous materials can besubjected to the action of the air-bath and that the air can besaturated by different means from those described and I shall nottherefore in my claim restrict myself to the use of any particularapparatus for producing the desired results. It will be also evidentthat in lieu of charging air with water, that it may be saturated withvarious spirits, such as alcohol, spirits of turpentine, 620., beforeacting upon the fibrous materials.

Having thus described my improved and new process, I shall state myclaim as follows:

Vhat I claim as my invention and desire to have secured to me by LettersPatent is My new mode of treating fibrous materials, such as flax, hemp,jute, Manila-grass, sugar-cane, &c., the same consisting in subjectingthem to the action of air charged or saturated with moisture or vapor,substantially as set forth.

STEPHEN M. ALLEN.

\Vitnesses JosnPH GAvE'r'r, ALBERT'W. BROWN.

